Fun With Play-Dough

The numbers regarding repeat deployment, and the subsequent mental problems the military faces, are bad. Very, very bad. I wonder whether anybody can look me straight in the eye and tell me this is a surprise. It’s shown that 12 % of non commissioned officers suffer from PTSD after one tour, a number that increases to 18.5 % after the second, and 27 % after the third or fourth. It has also been announced that repeat deployments will only increase over the next year. What the hell is wrong with this government? And these numbers don’t even begin to account for the additional fall-out: the spouses and children that stay behind, the marriages that break up, the parents that have to deal with their children returning to them broken and unrecognizable.

Nobody can begin to guess the consequences of this for this nation. Nobody can assure us that returning servicemen are receiving the help they need; it’s Vietnam all over again, except worse. Any returning members of the military, whether they have gone for their first or fourth tour, deserves the absolute best care money can buy. The military’s money. The money that is now dumped indiscriminately into this war. When this war is over, which I hope is soon, we need an army of a different kind: an army of mental health specialists.

Is it time for the election already?

Read the full article in today’s NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/washington/06military.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1207498343-FREgSy8pmZ3+w0djTPPbnQ